Party changers: Rep. Tricia Cotham irked Democrats but she’s not the first to switch

North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham has drawn national attention since defecting from the Democratic party Wednesday to join the state’s Republican majority. But she’s far from the first politician to change political affiliation mid-cycle.

Ballotpedia — a nonprofit, nonpartisan, online encyclopedia of United States politics — records 168 state lawmakers across the country as having changed political parties since 1994, including 48 senators and 120 representatives.

That precedent hasn’t stopped Democrats from labeling what Cotham did as “deceit of the highest order.” Many from her former party view Cotham’s new Republican allegiance as an acute crisis. The move gives Republicans a supermajority in both legislative chambers and may have stripped Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, of his ability to successfully veto bills to which the party objects.

“It is a betrayal to the people of Mecklenburg County, with repercussions not only for the people of her district, but for the entire state of North Carolina,” said Anderson Clayton, the newly elected chair of North Carolina’s Democratic Party, during a news conference Wednesday.

Republicans meanwhile celebrated their new addition: the 72nd Republican in the North Carolina House.

“We are thrilled to have Rep. Cotham join the Republican Party to advance solutions for North Carolina families,” said Michael Whatley, chairman of the NC GOP. “This announcement continues to reflect that the Democratic Party is too radical for North Carolina. The values of the Republican Party align with voters, and the People of Mecklenburg County should be proud to have her representation in Raleigh.”

How does Cotham’s shift compare to previous party changers?

Party crashers

Cotham’s move to the Republican party is unusual in today’s political climate, but it used to be more common, according to Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.

“We use to have more party switchers in North Carolina as the south moved from solidly Democrat to solidly Republican,” he said.

Cooper thought back to people like U.S. Sens. Jesse Helms, of North Carolina, and Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina. Both originally were Democrats.

“Clearly, neither one is known for their liberal positions,” Cooper said, with a chuckle. “We used to see it more often. What’s unusual here is that the parties are almost perfectly sorted, so it’s just not the case that people are mismatched anymore.”

Is this the biggest coup in North Carolina political history? Cooper said no.

But he said it ranks near the top.

IHOP bribe

The most notable party change in North Carolina’s history was state Rep. Michael Decker’s. It resulted in two prison sentences: Decker’s and then-House Speaker Jim Black’s.

In 2003, Decker announced he planned to change his affiliation from Republican to Democrat. In the prior year’s elections, Black, a Democrat, was about to lose his power when voters elected 61 Republicans and 59 Democrats to the House.

Black and Decker met at an IHOP to discuss a $50,000 bribe and Decker agreed to change his party and help reelect Black as speaker. At another IHOP visit, the money changed hands. Decker’s move allowed Black to regain his authority over the House and for Democrats to maintain power.

Decker would serve 10 terms total in the North Carolina House representing an area around Forsyth County before news broke of the bribe. His political career was cut short when he pleaded guilty to corruption in 2006, The News & Observer previously reported.

Black took an Alford plea, which means he didn’t admit guilt, but felt a plea deal was in his best interest considering the evidence against him.

Both served prison time, though Black’s sentence stemmed from other crimes.

Republican rage

In the 1970s, Republicans were dealt back-to-back blows when Rep. Carolyn Mathis, a Republican from Charlotte, and Rep. Ralph Ledford, a Republican from Hendersonville, switched parties just two sessions apart.

Mathis went first, becoming a Democrat, following by Ledford.

The Associated Press covered Ledford’s switch and said former Republican Party Chairman Jack Lee immediately called for Ledford’s resignation, while others called his decision “political suicide.”

Ledford left Republicans with only 14 representatives in the House and five in the Senate.

He has since unsuccessfully tried to run for offices, including Congress, in both North Carolina and South Carolina.

Mathis’ constituents reelected her to another term.

Moving to independent

More recently, Rep. Paul Tine, of Kitty Hawk, changed his political affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 2015, The News & Observer previously reported.

Tine’s constituents elected him as a Democrat in 2013 to represent Beaufort, Dare, Hyde and Washington.

He was reelected in 2014 and in the middle of his term announced his decision to become an Independent. He also chose to caucus with Republicans.

He said then he felt the switch would help him better serve his constituents.

He left Democrats with 45 seats in the House and did not seek reelection.

Cotham’s change

It’s not yet clear the impact Cotham’s change will have on North Carolina Democrats. She declined to identify where she stands on several policy issues during a Wednesday morning news conference.

Clayton said Cotham’s decision put reproductive freedoms, public schools, LGBTQ rights, voting issues and the future of the state on the line.

“This is about the issues,” Clayton said. “It’s not about the politics of this. It is about the issues that impact our friends, our families, our neighbors, our loved ones — the people that matter to us in the state that we care about right now.”

Cooper, who is no relation of Gov. Roy Cooper, said he does not consider Cotham a conservative Democrat, but he would have called her a moderate.

She ran on Democratic platforms and has stood strongly for abortion rights. While lawmakers in 2015 debated forcing a woman to wait 72-hours before getting an abortion, Cotham spoke on the House floor, saying she’d previously had an abortion.

After, Cotham told Time Magazine that people flipped her off, swerved their cars toward her and “a Republican colleague came up to her and called her a ‘baby-killer.’”

On Wednesday, Cotham said she became a Republican because her old party left her feeling isolated and bullied by its members. She did not mention any policy conflicts.

“Let’s say Tricia Cotham’s voting patterns don’t change,” Cooper, the professor, said. “Then essentially, nothing has changed in term’s of Gov. Cooper’s veto.”

If her stances on policies do change, Republicans no longer need a single Democrat to vote with them to override a veto.